The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

It would be easier to subjugate the entire universe through force than the minds of a single village.

The superfluous is the most necessary.

The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.

If we do not exert the right of eating our neighbor, it is because we have other means of making good cheer

Slavery is also as ancient as war, and war as human nature.

History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.